1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to laminators used for covering both sides of an object sheet with two sheets of protective film and, more particularly, to a device for eliminating static electricity from the protective film of laminated sheets using an air current in such a laminator, thus allowing the laminated sheets to be smoothly discharged from the laminator without undesirably sticking to a frame around the sheet outlet of the laminator due to the static electricity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, a laminator, used for covering both sides of an object sheet with protective film, typically comprises two film rolls respectively installed at the upper and lower portions of a main body. An object sheet, which is to be covered with protective film at both sides thereof, is positioned at the sheet inlet of the main body prior to starting the laminator. When the laminator is started, the object sheet moves along a sheet passage extending from the inlet to a sheet outlet in the laminator. In such a case, two sheets of protective film, fed from the two film rolls, respectively pass over upper and lower heating rollers, so that the film is appropriately heated and laminated on both sides of the object sheet moving along the sheet passage. The laminated sheet, covered with the two sheets of film at both sides thereof, is finally discharged from the main body through the sheet outlet.
However, such a typical laminator is problematic in that static electricity is thermally induced on the protective film during the process of heating the film and is maintained on the laminated sheet for a period of time, so that the laminated sheet may fail to be smoothly discharged from the laminator, but may undesirably stick to a frame of the laminator at a position around the sheet outlet due to such static electricity. In addition, the protective film is heated to a high temperature during the heating process, so that the film may crumple easily, in which case the quality of the laminated sheets is reduced.